FIELD OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates to rack structures, and more particularly, to such structures for displaying articles in the form of sheet materials, such as floor covering and in particular rolls of carpets.
In retail business establishments, it is desired to display samples of sheet materials such as floor coverings to which customers can refer for making their selections. It is desirable to display a significant number of floor coverings showing the various patterns, styles, makes and color of floor covering. First, it is desired to most attractively display such samples to permit ready access by a potential customer, while utilizing a relatively small amount of space so that valuable floor area of the establishment is not wasted or lost. In this regard, it is desirable to display as large a surface area of the floor coverings as possible to permit the customer to visualize the pattern and color scheme of the floor covering and to permit ready withdrawal of a selected covering for closer inspection and evaluation of the desirability of such a covering in his own residence or place of business. Further, such a display should provide for storage of floor covering, especially those coverings which are more popular and whose sales are the highest.
Such a display stand should be capable of being shipped in an unassembled form by a suitable carrier, e.g., the mails, and then reassembled at the retail establishment with readily available tools. The parts of the stand should be constructed to permit ready assembly, while ensuring the high overall structural strength and rigidity of the assembled stand.
As described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,643,774 and 2,946,454, floor coverings and in particular samples of carpets are displayed upon devices known as water fall sample display racks on which a plurality of carpet samples are secured in overlapping relationship in such a manner that the edge of each sample has an exposed area of several inches. Typically, such water fall display racks include means for clamping samples to the front of a curved base of the rack so that they cannot be removed without substantial inconvenience. Further, only a limited area of the carpet is displayed, even though others of the display samples are pulled back or disposed in a noncovering position. Thus, it is difficult for the potential customer to visualize what a large area of the sample would look like. Further, such samples, even though small, may be relatively heavy, thus making it difficult to move one sample to see another. In this connection, it may be necessary to lift a plurality of samples, which may be difficult for a female customer.